Location: Western Borneo in Southeast Asia
The Iban are a riverine who practice shifting cultivation. Their occupation of a new territory is always by way of the rivers. Most of the Iban live in longhouses set up on long poles or stilts which contain many different apartments in which individual families reside. Equality between the mother and the father is sustained in the kinship patterns of the Iban. Interestingly enough, marriage between first, second, or extended cousins is encouraged in Iban culture.
There is a strong emphasis on the beliefs of magic and spirits. Dreams play an intricate role in the life of and Iban person. For instance, if a woman desires to be with another man, she will say that she received a dream that if she were to stay with her current husband, she will die in the next childbirth. Separation from her husband is accepted by the band because of this alleged dream. Other such dream rights include being visited by an ancestor and that ancestor names an animal in which it “manifest.” Parts of the animal are carried with the dreamer and many rituals are practiced to observe the respect of the animal.
Young men sometimes sleep on the graves of ancestors or respected Iban members or they may fast for a long period hoping to invoke such a dream. Animals continue to have an impact on the Iban simply by the sounds an animal will make. The sounds of a certain bird could either cause a man to continue on his trek or to turn around and go home for fear of dying during the journey. The sound of another bird may require the listener to remain where they are for two days.
Sources:
eHRAF Collection of Ethnography; Magic, Burial Customs, Festivals, and Womenfolk Former link: http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/e/ehraf/hraf-idx?type=html&rgn=SUBSECT&byte=95480621. Accessed April 12, 2001
Freeman, Derek
1955 Report on the Iban of Sarawak: Vol. 1: Iban social organization. Kuching, Sarawak: Government
Printing Office. eHRAF World Cultures, New Haven, CT.
Written by Jayson Read
Edited by Melissa Lorentz, 2008